Fall Chores

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The herb-gardening season is drawing to a close. Twilight settles in earlier every evening, and the sun’s rays are shorter and cooler. This blazing summer brought its woes and its wonders, as always. The grasshoppers chomped unhindered by the biological control I spread about to keep their numbers down, and heat-loving weeds put up a fiercer fight than usual. On the up side, the lady’s-mantle was never more beautiful, and my new Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Knee High’, a true dwarf, proved as tough and beautiful as its taller cousins.

Now, however, my herbs and I feel weary. The heavy chores—digging, hauling, turning compost, countless forays from nursery to garden—are finished. The herbs shot up, bloomed, and now give way to tired, blotchy leaves and drying seed heads.

For me, work remains to be done, but autumn’s chores can be done at a more leisurely pace than spring’s. Like the herb garden itself, garden work tapers off in autumn, when the garden gets ready for a long, peaceful winter nap, and I get a rest.

Know your frost date

Frost happens! Be prepared by knowing the average frost date for your area and attending to reports of the cold fronts that will further slow your herb garden. Although the frost date gives only a historical average date of killing frosts, knowing it gives you a working timeframe for tucking in your garden. If you don’t know your area’s frost date, call your county’s Cooperative Extension Service for the information, as it varies quite a bit from one locale to another.

First steps toward winter

Help your herbs grow sleepy by ceasing fertilization and tapering off watering, both of which encourage growth. Water less and less over a period of three or four weeks, unless an unseasonably hot autumn has set in. In that case, extend minimal watering until cooler weather resumes. Without supplemental water and feedings, the herbs will follow their natural course toward rest as they stop expending energy to produce new growth that the forthcoming cold weather will subvert. Herbs store their energy in their roots and crown during autumn, preparing for winter dormancy so they’ll be ready for spring. Let them do it without interference.

Have you let your herbs set seed? Some herbs, such as catmint (Nepeta fasenjii) and fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) can become garden pests if their seedy bounty spreads through the garden. Remove the seed heads and hoe any unwanted herb or weed seedlings that appear in autumn. If they get established and survive the winter, they will be unpleasantly hardy and aggressive in the spring.

You may want to gather the seed of herbs such as perennial dianthus, poppy, and purple coneflower and annuals such as nasturtium. Place the dry seeds in labeled paper envelopes and store them in a covered glass jar in the refrigerator. With a little care, these seeds will leap to life in the spring.

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